Max Power's Pack & Wand Build (Updated 10th May)

[neo_virus]

Well it has been a long time coming (23 years in fact), but I am finally going to be joining the ‘Proton Pack Owners Club’. With the arrival of DL4567’s shell this week and Proptronix’s light kit, it was about time to get started.

My current list of pieces I have are:

• DL4567 Shell + Mobo
• ALICE pack
• Crix Sound Kit
• Speakers
• Proptronix Light Kit
• Resin Shock Mount
• Authentic Gray Crank Knob
• Ion Arm cap
• SMC Elbows
• SMC Straights
• Nick-a-tron’s Gun Kit
• AJ’s Ribbon Cable (on order).

As you can see I still need to purchase several other bits (mostly just the Pack greebles) so I have decided to start on the wand build. Having re-read Cheex’s, Stroudy’s and Warrenzo’s builds and browsed GBFans for the best part of a week I feel I am ready.

Oh and lastly I would like to thank everybody for their in-depth builds (especially Cheex), you have all been a great help getting here!

On with the show…

Day 1:

First thing I did was to tape the baseplate to the body and drill out the posts to insert the erm.. inserts! I am still yet to add some putty for the 6th insert.




During this process I was using my drill alot as a screwdriver to save my sanity whilst I was constantly adding and removing the M5 bolts. It was this that caused my first major screw up. I went to remove one of the bolts that was tightened up not realising the drill was in forward mode. The bolt went further into the base plate causing a minor crack in the corner. I may get this replaced with an aluminium plate at a later date.


I then proceeded to get the Heatsink attached. Nick’s new heatsink looks spot on and has the holes already marked out. I simply drilled them out with a 3mm drill bit and drilled the holes on the gun box. I have used M3 socket head bolts to attach this to the body.





I then opened up the vent holes. You can also see in the pictures that I have drilled a 3mm hole ready for the stream adjuster knob.



Next up I opened a (slightly offset) hole to run the wires to the barrel.


After that was done, I moved onto attaching the Clippard valve. Marked out the holes and used a 4mm drill bit (ready for the M4 Cheese head bolts). I was planning on using an insert as a nut wouldn’t quite fit, however I later fitted this insert properly.




I then opened up the front handle hole a bit, this allowed me to dremel away at the post ready to fit a nut for the stream adjuster knob.


With that done I decided to call it quits and watch Piraha 3D (which was a terrible film).



Day 2:

Day 2 started with a bit more research on GBFans and perusing the Blu-Ray. This lead to an interesting discovery, it seems the plate for the rear instrument bar was never present in GB1 from what I could see.

I then started to work on attaching the rest of the greebles. First up was the tiny side knob. For this I will be using an M2 bolt.



I then quickly tidied up the hole in the handle.


Next up was the palm rest. First I marked it up and drilled a couple of 4mm holes, then I rather trickly drilled another two holes (well 3 actually) on the palm rest and inserted some M4 inserts. The extra hole was due to me accidently using the wrong drill bit.






I then mounted the other side knob again with an M3 bolt sunk in it.




With that done I proceeded to fix the last knob onto the wand. First I marked a hole onto the knob and then drilled a hole ready for the bolt. Throwers in the film appear to have this hole in them, although I’m not sure if I should fill it up or leave it as is. Anybody got any opinions on this?




Onto the side discs next, although I wasn’t entirely sure how to attach these. After giving it some thought I decided to use some trusty M4 inserts. Although because of the thickness I had to insert these into the thicker part. To do that I first used a tiny drill bit and made a hole in each of the fake allen bolts. With that hole I was then able to see where to drill the hole for the insert. I then slowly drilled out the hole being cautious not to drill right through. I still need to get some smaller bolts for these, as well as add a pin to the centre so they don’t spin around, making them offset.



Looking back at the attachment for the Clippard I wasn’t too happy with it. I decided to drill the hole bigger and add an insert. Whilst doing that I also added the inserts for the Clippard valves/green hose like Dr Cheex used in his build.





With that done (and not much more to do) I called it quits for the day.





I’m really happy with how this going so far, although I wish I could drill straighter holes!

I have a couple of questions at the moment:

• Does the hole in the knob next to the Clippard look really bad?
• Should I fill it in (leaving the bolt inside) or leave it as it is?
• Should I go with PVC or Aluminium handles?

[kingpin]

@neo_virus

I have a couple of questions at the moment:

• Does the hole in the knob next to the Clippard look really bad?
• Should I fill it in (leaving the bolt inside) or leave it as it is?
• Should I go with PVC or Aluminium handles?

1. Whilst it looks a tad on the large size, at least it’s a clean circle, and centralised on the knob.

2. You could do, if you wished to make the hole smaller, but still keep this detail from the Ghostbusters Proton Guns.

3. Tough one, my first and second Guns had PVC, whilst my third’s got aluminium. Honestly, both types are pretty good. I suppose in this case as the gun body isn’t made from metal, you could always go with PVC handles this time around… however you may wish to bare this in mind when getting the “converter” for the frosted tube, as some are designed for a specific interior diamater.

There was one thing I wanted to point out though, I believe the palm rest has been mounted the wrong way around:



Notice that the side you’ve drilled has a slight “halo” to the face that you’ve drilled? If I’m not mistaken, this was a deliberate design element Nick had incorporated, mimicking the look of some of the parts on the prop Packs, which appeared to be little more than a sawn PVC tube with a wooden “stopper” fitted within it.

It’s not a major problem that sanding what’s now the outside “face” can’t fix, in order to smooth out the surface a bit.

[Vincenzo330]

Looks great so far. One small thing, the heatsink screws should be shorter and attach from the inside of the gunbox.

[julz]

@Vincenzo330

Looks great so far. One small thing, the heatsink screws should be shorter and attach from the inside of the gunbox.

Awww man really? you just ruined my morning

So what I thought were screw heads on the heatsink on the Minnesota pack are not screw heads at all? just a larger bodied screw which has been screwed all the way through and poking out on the heatsink side?

If thats the case what is the correct size of this screw?

Ya learn new things all the time

[neo_virus]

@Kingpin

1. Whilst it looks a tad on the large size, at least it’s a clean circle, and centralised on the knob.

2. You could do, if you wished to make the hole smaller, but still keep this detail from the Ghostbusters Proton Guns.

3. Tough one, my first and second Guns had PVC, whilst my third’s got aluminium. Honestly, both types are pretty good. I suppose in this case as the gun body isn’t made from metal, you could always go with PVC handles this time around… however you may wish to bare this in mind when getting the “converter” for the frosted tube, as some are designed for a specific interior diamater.

There was one thing I wanted to point out though, I believe the palm rest has been mounted the wrong way around:

Notice that the side you’ve drilled has a slight “halo” to the face that you’ve drilled? If I’m not mistaken, this was a deliberate design element Nick had incorporated, mimicking the look of some of the parts on the prop Packs, which appeared to be little more than a sawn PVC tube with a wooden “stopper” fitted within it.

It’s not a major problem that sanding what’s now the outside “face” can’t fix, in order to smooth out the surface a bit.

Thanks for the input Ben, I am thinking I will fill it in and drill a smaller hole (hopefully allowing access to the bolt head).

Regarding the palm rest I did wonder this when I was fixing it on. Like you say nothing a good bit of wet/dry sand paper won’t fix.

@Vincenzo330

Looks great so far. One small thing, the heatsink screws should be shorter and attach from the inside of the gunbox.

Thank you very much Vinny really appreciate that coming from yourself! The bolts I have used so far are only what I have on hand at the moment. I shall be sorting the lengths out on the ridiculous bolts once I have the location of everything finalised. Regarding the direction of them I have been mostly using the pictures you took of the ‘Sony Lobby’ pack which have the heads on the outside. I think I will leave them as they are quite secure as it stands. Should I upgrade to a metal heat sink I will get the holes tapped and attach the bolts from the inside.

I am going to be away for the next two days so won’t get any time until Wednesday evening to work on it.

[kingpin]

@Vincenzo330

Looks great so far. One small thing, the heatsink screws should be shorter and attach from the inside of the gunbox.

Aha, thanks for that tip, Vince… I’d wondered how they attached the heatsinks on the real props.

Here’s the best photo of the method from the Minnesota Pack (a redressed Proton Pack from the first movie):

[julz]

Cheers for that Kingpin

I didn’t see that picture!

Sorry for hijacking your thread mr max powers…

[neo_virus]

No worries Julz I managed to get some more of this done last night:

Next part to tackle on my build was getting the rear instrument bar attached. After giving it some thought I decided to cut the fake cover off and create a new one, and with that I can use the two bolts to attach it to the gun box.

Here is what I started with:


I then spent far too long cutting a hole in the cover, sanding the cover down and then tidying up the hole. Whilst it isn’t exactly nice and tidy, it does the job. I didn’t want to risk cracking and breaking the resin either. I am considering attaching some styrene tubing inside to keep the bolts from moving about, but need to pick some up the right size first.


With that done, I then created a cover using some 1.5mm styrene sheet. I cut it to size and then marked and drilled some holes.


I then used the cover to mark out some holes on the gunbox and then added some M4 inserts and then I was able to bolt the rear instrument bar to the body.



I’m still trying to decide how to attach the trigger box to the instrument bar, so I will probably mull that over for the time being. Unfortunately as it stands my computer is quite ill, so having to make backups and get around to installing Windows again so updates might be a bit slow. Really pleased with how the build is going though, really is testament to how great Nick’s kit is!

[nick-a-tron]

Youre doing a great job! As Ben pointed out you did mount the palm rest backwards but just sand the face with wet and dry paper and youll be set

Also if youd like a new baseplate let me know.

[neo_virus]

Thanks for the offer Nick, I need to make an order of pack parts sometime next month so will order it then if that is ok with you? Don’t worry about the palm rest, I will be getting that sanded down (and polished up a little) when I start prepping for paint!

With that said I have some updates for everyone. I wasn’t able to get the handles until I got paid which was in 2 weeks time, so I moved onto getting the bargraph/lights PCB installed.

Firstly I decided to make my own bargraph surround using some styrene sheet. I cut 4 pieces and then glued a smaller and a longer piece together forming two L-shapes. Once the glue had dried, I was able to tweak the fitting and then assemble the 2 pieces together.




With the bargraph surround made, I turned my attention to getting the it fitted into the thrower body. I drilled lots of small holes and then cut the middle out. Finally I epoxied in the surround and let that set.





With that done, I then removed a huge chunk of the supporting post, so that the PCB will fit snug inside. Originally I was going to epoxy in a screw like shown to keep the board in place… until I realised I wouldn’t be able to get the board in. So I will be gluing and puttying in an insert to keep the board in place.



I was then able to get the handle tubing ordered and commence work Friday just gone (2nd March). In the end I decided to go with aluminium tubing, as I didn’t really want to purchase 3m worth of PVC tubing and then take it on the bus.

This worked out really well as the tubing I got fit Nick’s kit like a globe (32mm OD, 16AWG - about 1.6mm wall thickness). I did a few measurements using Stefans 1:1 plans and then got to work cutting. Cutting took a while as I don’t have any suitable power tools, so it was elbow grease and a junior hacksaw for me. That done, I taped on the grips and held it properly for the first time.



On Saturday I worked a bit more on the handles and getting the ears attached, and also securing the handles to the body. First up was the ‘Lock Block’, which was attached with an M4 bolt and an insert into the grip.



I then worked on attaching the ear with the banjo. For this I drilled a hole either side of the handle, placed an insert into the ear and bolted it up. (sadly I don’t have any pictures of this, but it is a very similiar method that Cheex used I believe). I then moved onto the other ear, which turned out to be a pain.I decided to place another insert on the grip, drill a hole through the ear and bolt it down. Unfortunately whilst trying to get the button to fit, I bolted it up a bit too tight and split the bottom. That said it is quite minor so I should be able to get away with a bit of epoxy and putty.






I then moved onto getting both handles bolted to the thrower. First up was the rear handle, I used two M4 bolts with nuts inside of the tubing. I will also be gluing these in place , but for now these hold it pretty well. I also have a third hole drilled on the side wall, I just need to drill the hole in the aluminium first!




The front handle is attached using another 2 M4 bolts which go into brass inserts. I still need to add the brass collars for these, which I can’t seem to find. If I can’t I will just glue some brass washers together instead. Please note that I will be puttying up the gaps and make some fake welds for the handles. Finally I also added one of the details I never got around to adding earlier - the bolt between the two side discs.



That brings me up to today. I superglued the insert in (will be epoxying and puttying in later), and then started to fill some holes.





I still need to get the trigger box connected but I think I will be using two hexangonal bolts going into some inserts in the Rear Instrument Box. I feel like i’m nearly at a stage where it will be ready for paint!

[neo_virus]

I managed to finally get the trigger box attached which I had been putting off a bit.

I went with 2 M4 bolts with hex heads on the inside. This method allows me to insert/remove them without having to drill through the side of the trigger box. Granted it takes a bit more time to tighten them up but its a small price to pay to make it removable (without having to drill holes in the trigger box).

I drew the edges of the instrument bar on the trigger box so I knew where to make the holes. I then marked and drilled out two 4mm holes for the bolts. With this done I then used a dab of paint to mark one of the holes on the instrument bar and drill a 5.5mm hole and add an M4 insert.

With one bolt fully done up I marked off the second one using a dab of paint and a bit of luck and drilled another 5.5mm hole for the insert. This worked out to be spot on and I didn’t need to adjust the holes at all. Finally I added both bolts and made sure the switch clearance was ok and then added the whole assembly back to the rear of the thrower. I just need to drill out a hole for the wires and add some inserts at the back to attach a cover for the trigger box.







[neo_virus]

I’m still waiting on some bits arriving from both Colin and Exoray which is partially holding my build up. That said I’ve been trying to get little bits done here and there, so in the meantime I have stripped all the parts off and have been filling/sanding the bits in preparation for paint.

One of the areas I have been a bit unsure about was connecting the split loom to the wand. After giving it some thought I have decided to use some clear tubing that will get bolted down with the handle. I then plan on duct-taping/cable tying the loom to the clear tubing, allowing me a non-permanent tidy looking fixture. I also like the fact it gives some weight to the tubing.

First thing I did was to drill the two holes into the tubing. With that done I tried to pass the bolts through the gun body, aluminium tubing and clear tubing. Unfortunately I struggled to hold the nuts in place and had to have a quick ‘rethink’.

I decided I was going superglue and epoxy the nuts into place on the clear tubing. This means I don’t have to struggle holding them in place whilst trying to get the bolt through.

I don’t imagine it to be the strongest bond (I might add some Magic Sculp to secure them further), but I don’t think it will need to be as I will also be epoxying the handle into place.

[neo_virus]

Wow! It has almost been a month since my last update, so apologies for the lack of updates!

During this time I have got quite a few more bits done on my thrower which I will detail below. I have also launched my own Website/blog which is aimed mostly at model building, but I have been posting my GB props on it as well. You can check it out at http://www.maxmodelling.co.uk/

Now I’ve got that shameless self promotion out of the way I will get onto the progress!

My order arrived from Colin and with it came the clear tubing. I then began working on getting this attached to the front of the barrel. Because of the method I used to attach one the ear, I had to cut away at part of the barrel spacer. With that cut it fit nicely at the front of the handle. Unfortunately I the bolt was a bit too tall and so the barrel didn’t quite fit in.

To solve this I took out the dremel and started carving a ‘valley’ in the side of the tube. This slid nicely over bolt and wasn’t too lose. Just to be sure I need to carve away a bit more so I can twist it to lock it in place (indicated by the black marker going round the barrel in the picture).




To keep the LEDs in place in the barrel I used a bit of tubing off cut (that I used for my leg hose). This was a nice tight push fit meaning it wasn’t going to slip out and that the LEDs wasn’t going to fall down the barrel. It just needs a bit of tidying to keep the LEDs straight.


With that done, I moved onto getting the front grips attached. First thing I did was to work out the positions that was most comfortable and to tape them to the handles. I then drilled out two 4mm holes through the grips and into the aluminium tubing. Finally I drilled a slightly larger hole (making sure to not go through the grip completely) to countersink the bolt head. Lastly I used two M4 bolts and nuts with some nut lock to keep these secured.




I then took my thrower to Birmingham Comic-con so that Simon, Russ, Luke, Luke and Rich could check the positioning of the handles. Thankfully it was all OK and no adjustments needed to be made. This meant that I was ready to glue the handles to the body. For this I used 2 part Araldite



With that set I was then able to tidy up those seems. I tried to recreate some fake welds using Magic Sculp, however I just wasn’t able to create anything that looked convincing. Instead of creating bad looking fake welds I made the decision to just smooth out the seems and then to wet sand them. At least this way it won’t look to ‘unbelievable’.



Whilst waiting for that to set, I got to work on finishing up the trigger box and cutting a hole to feed the wires through. I also created two posts in the corner of the trigger box and placed an M3 insert into each one. I then created a cover using the same styrene sheet I used for the Rear Instrument Bar. To finish that off I tidied up the edges and sanded them so they were flush with the trigger box.






With that done, all that was left was to fill any marks/holes in any of the pieces. Lastly I wet sanded each piece to around 1200-1500 grade and then gave it all a thorough wash ready for paint.

So now I am just playing the waiting game with the weather. Once it picks up a bit I can get outside and get it all painted up.

In the meantime I am going to get one of the most dreaded parts of the pack done - Getting the shell attached to the motherboard. In the meantime I will leave you with this preview:


[neo_virus]

It’s update time again! I seem to be getting carried away now, so apologies if the pictures don’t quite cover everything.

The first thing I wanted to do with my shell was to get it mounted to the motherboard. So I drilled out two 4.8mm holes on the angle brackets ready for the rivets.


I then taped that down to the motherboard and double checked the shell fitted over it. I then drilled out the first hole on the motherboard and then placed the rivet in place. I then drilled out the second hole. Using this method insured that the holes were drilled in the correct place and that I didn’t have to widen them. I then proceeded to clamp the bracket in place and attached the rivets. Unfortunately this didn’t quite go to plan, as the tool I was using was rubbish and kept snapping off the shank half way down. I sawed of the remaining part of the shank and the bracket felt pretty secure so I decided not to drill them out and redo them with a better tool.





With that done I then marked out and drilled the holes through the shell (also marking them on the bracket too). I then widened the hole and placed a M6 riv-nut into the space and then used a special rivet tool to keep that in place. This allows me to have a fair amount of thread for the bolts to grip too.






I then proceeded to mount the last few parts I could for the time being which included a resin Clippard (excuse all the lines, I was trying to find the centre point), two GBFans straight fittings and also two hose barbs ready for the hoses from the injector tubes.








I also marked out and cut the hole ready for the hose from the wand. I also spent a good 2 hours trying different ways to get the hose to attach to the wand that was also removable. The bolts I fitted the handles with were getting in the way of my original plan. In the end I essentially duct-taped some tubing (with a section removed to slip over the bolts) around the split loom. Due to the frustration of it keep getting stuck I didn’t take any pictures off this but can do should anybody want to see it.




The tubing and bolts I needed to mount the ALICE frame to the motherboard had arrived so I then got this task out the way. This took longer than I had hoped for, as it turned out to be somewhat awkward to make sure it was mounted straight. I used 3xM8 bolts with a 1" piece of aluminium tubing as spacers, and then some nyloc nuts on the other side. I also attached the wand hose to one of these bolts by drilling out a hole in some clear tubing (that was duct-taped to the loom tube) held down by a wing nut. It looks a bit untidy but it does a decent job and looks pretty clean on the outside.


By this point my large order from Nick had arrived so I could get to attaching a load more parts to the pack. First up was the PPD. I marked out two holes on the shell and then drilled them. I then tabled the PPD on and then marked out the holes on the PPD from inside the shell using a drill bit. Lastly I then placed some inserts into the PPD and could then attach it to the shell.





I then moved onto the bumper. This was a little tricky to mount and get straight, but I think I managed to make it look pretty good. The only downside is that the two bolts either side of the bumper arn’t very central. I drilled out two holes either side of the shell and then placed the bumper in place. I then marked out those holes from the inside of the shell with a drill bit and then drilled them out. This is bolted to the shell with 4 M6 bolts and feels pretty secure.



I then proceeded to do a bit of work on the Ion Arm (which still isn’t complete) and I only have one photo so I will write that up a bit later on. I did however manage to make the hoover go BANG! with smoke and everything whilst hoovering up my desk. Turns out I didn’t have it set to the ‘Tool’ option whilst using the attachment, this caused it to constantly try to hoover up the cable it was standing on. After pulling the cable out it looked like this.


I then spent an afternoon round my girlfriend’s Dad’s garage getting the beam line and filler tubes done in his lathe. Unfortunately I can’t take credit for this as he did all the work on them, which included adding some M6 inserts and getting the Clippard attached. All I can say is that working with solid acrylic rod is a right pain in the behind. I still need to cut some square bases for these from styrene but they are as good as done. Whilst he was doing that I was getting the injector tubes cut (I managed to find some PVC tubing in the shed that was the correct dimensions). I then bolted the two injectors together and proceeded to sand them down. I also figured I would use the same nut-serts I used on the angle brackets to keep the angle bracket in place for the injectors. So I did a quick test and it should be fine if I don’t over tighten them.





This is currently how my pack is looking now. My V-Hook arrived yesterday so that will be getting attached soon. You can also see in the picture the slight bit of work that has been done to the ion arm, as I said earlier i’ll cover this properly a bit later on. I also plan on mounting that and the injectors like I mentioned in this thread:


[ray_stantzs_cigar]

I love it!! Your build is very thorough.